Color Tile

Review: see Attached documentDesired Settlement: see Attached document

Business

Response:

I have received the complaint that Mr. [redacted] has expressed through the Revdex.com. His accounts of this situation could not be any more incorrect..

Mr. [redacted] purchased 30 cartons of laminate flooring from us on 3-7-13. We special ordered the material for him from our supplier. The shipment came to us in great shape aside from a small amount of damage on the end of two cartons. Mr. [redacted] and I discussed that he should have a sufficient amount of material to complete his project as you waste 5-10% during the installation process. I in good faith made a note on the sales order that if he did run short due to the waste we would replace the two cartons.

Mr. [redacted] came in several weeks later and had finished his project. He had a complaint that the material had dried glue on the surface, pad missing on the back, and due to this the installation took him extra time. Carpet Warehouse had started stocking this product, sold several pallets to other customers and had not had any of the issues Mr. [redacted] had expressed.

I asked Mr. [redacted] to bring in a few sample pieces of the material in question. He came in a few days later with several scrap pieces. I took them and turned them over to a representative for the company we buy the material from. They determined there was nothing wrong with the material and there was no recourse for Mr. [redacted] as he had already installed all material with no full cartons to return.

Mr. [redacted] came in shortly after I had received this information and I passed it along to him. He became irate and demanded a refund or 5 cartons of the flooring. He raised his voice and claimed he was going to call his attorney. At this point I told Mr. [redacted] our conversation was over and he needed to leave the building. I repeated this several times and finally Mr. [redacted] walked out harassing other patrons of our business on the way.

The claim that Mr. [redacted] returned % to 1/3 of the material for inspection is a complete lie to help bolster his claim. We have been doing business in Idaho and Washington for over 19 years and pride ourselves on customer service.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 9551184, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Regards,

I received your letter dated June 17, 2013 on June 19, 2013 and have chosen to respond via email regarding the above number complaint filed by me on 5-21-2013. I would like to respond to Mr. [redacted]s letter and provide additional details regarding the defective product the store is not willing to stand behind. He indicated that I returned only scraps This partially is true. They were an example of the poor quality of the product sold to me. Why should it make any difference if the board is cut to a length of 3 ft. from the original 4 ft. if it is defective. There was an excess amount of glue from the factory on a large amount of the face of the flooring that was very difficult to remove even when using petroleum based products made for that purpose. In addition the "scraps" I returned were indicative of the small pin holes in the surface. I feel it is a moot point if the holes were on partial pieces or full pieces of flooring. The point is, a large amount of the floor was defective. On Thursday, June 20, 2013 I opened two of the five boxes of flooring left over from the project. I found pin holes and glue on over 30% of the flooring making it non-usable unless you wanted to cut it for scrap. I paid for 100% of the boards when obviously it was not possible to use much less even when deducting for waste. More of the flooring would have been usable whether as a whole piece or even as pieces cut for smaller areas. As it is, approximately 30% of the flooring was unusable in the manner it was manufactured for, remove from the box and install, simply due to the holes and glue product smeared all over it. I would be more than happy to provide the defective samples to you. I take exception to Mr. [redacted]s comments that I harassed other patrons in the store. As I walked out I passed an elderly couple walking down the aisle and I merely commented in a normal tone of voice, "be careful what you buy". I did not raise my voice and him threatening to call the police over his inability to handle a defective merchandise complaint and refusal to stand behind his merchandise is pretty lame, in my opinion. I was willing to take my claim to the manufacturer or its representative however Mr. [redacted] refused to provide that information to me. How do I know he didn't take the examples and throw them in the trash without looking further into the matter. The cartons contain no information as to who the manufacturer is or country of origin. What are they trying to hide? Finally, Mr. [redacted] states they have been doing business for over 19 years and pride themselves on customer service. Apparently they do not set the customer service bar very high. From my conversations with people after the fact, numerous people told me my first mistake was even going in the store. To avoid a possible lawsuit I will not repeat the words used by most to describe Color Tile in Coeur d' Alene. In conclusion, I fail to see how they can sell an obviously defective product and then not stand behind it when they advertise the product has a 25 year warranty and then conceal the manufacturer and country of origin to prevent a consumer from getting satisfaction when the retailer refuses to cooperate.

Business

Response:

In regards to your issue with the PacMat product Capetown Laminate as you recall I had sent examples of product from your stock on hand for review and inspection mid April of this year. We found no physical defects at that time, other than the occasional marks of some sort of substance on an occasional board. As the product was already installed, it was considered "accepted as is" by your customer. The best we could recommend is to clean the floor of the marks. A product called, "Fresh Floor" works well for this and is available through T&A Supply. At the time of our inspection, we saw no evidence of the pinholes or glue from the factory as stated by your customer.

As stated in our published warranty and installation information, we instruct that all product need to be inspected prior to installation:

"Please read all instructions carefully before you begin installation. Improper installation will void warranty.

* Always check panels for defects such as chips and color or sheen differences under good light conditions. Also check that channel is clean and free of debris."

Please let me know if there is further information you require or any way I can help come to a resolution with this issue.